Brazil: Jittery Ahead of the Olympics
| Publisher | Jamestown Foundation |
| Author | Alexander Sehmer |
| Publication Date | 5 August 2016 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 16 |
| Cite as | Jamestown Foundation, Brazil: Jittery Ahead of the Olympics, 5 August 2016, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 16, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57a9c3ee2e6.html [accessed 3 November 2019] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Link to original story on Jamestown website
Federal police in Brazil have arrested at least 12 people in connection with an alleged Islamic State (IS) cell, ahead of the Olympic Games. The arrests follow the emergence online of a group calling itself Ansar al-Khilafah Brazil, which declared allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in July, the first Latin American outfit to do so (SITE, July 18).
On August 2, a pressure cooker filled with bolts and nails exploded in the parking lot of the Conjunto Naciona shopping mall, an incident police said had "indications" of a terror attack (Correio Braziliense, August, 2). It is unclear who was behind the blast.
Brazil, which is hosting the Games amid its own unfolding political crisis, has little history of Islamist terrorism, but the threat of an attack appears real. In April, Brazilian intelligence confirmed the authenticity of a tweet by Maxime Hauchard, a French national who has appeared in IS beheading videos, in which he stated: "Brazil, you are our next target" (EBC Agencia Brasil, April 14).
With a mounting number of attacks in Europe this summer, the Brazilian authorities are leaving little to chance. In July, they deported the French-Algerian physicist Adlene Hicheur (20 Minutes, August 4). Hicheur, who was arrested and jailed in France in 2009 over alleged links to al-Qaeda, links he denies, was a researcher at the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Switzerland and had moved to Brazil nearly three years ago.
There was also concern in June when a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, Abu Wael Dhiab, who had been living in neighboring Uruguay, went missing supposedly having crossed into Brazil (El Observador, June 18). He later turned up at the Uruguayan consulate in Venezuela.
Dhiab was among six Guantanamo detainees repatriated to Uruguay in 2014. The former detainees' experiences in their new South American home are instructive. Initially welcomed, the men were treated as a media spectacle and have struggled to adjust to their new surroundings, due no doubt in part to their years in incarceration.
In fact, an online operation such as Ansar al-Khilafah Brazil, however amateur, is a greater threat to security during the Games. As with the recent incidents in Europe, an attack is most likely to be staged by an individual, radicalized online, and with few obvious ties to established terrorist networks.
